Designs of curved structure based on the art of origami have been shown to improve the flexibility of robotics technologies. Through “tunable adaptability” robots can adjust their stiffness to effectively perform specific tasks — a function that until now has been difficult for robots to perform. The research leading to the advancement was led by Hanqing Jiang, a Fulton Schools professor of mechanical engineering. The design of the curved creases and each curved crease, corresponds to a particular flexibility,” Jiang says. His team’s paper on the research, titled “In Situ Stiffness Manipulation Using Elegant Curved Origami,” has been published in the journal Science Advances.